| United Swiss Railways | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Native name | Vereinigte Schweizerbahnen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opened | 1 May 1857 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Closed | 1 July 1902 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The United Swiss Railways (Vereinigten Schweizerbahnen; VSB or V.S.B.) was a former railway company in Switzerland. It was the smallest of the five main railways that were nationalised from 1902 to form the Swiss Federal Railways.
The United Swiss Railways were established on 1 May 1857 by the merger of three railway companies, all of which were in financial difficulties:
One of the reasons for the VSB's initial financial problems was that the projected construction costs were far too low, leading to an additional capital requirement of around CHF 20 million. The additional capital was provided by a French financier. The Parisian banker, Isaac Péreire of Crédit Mobilier envisaged an eastern alpine crossing linking the French railway companies of the Chemins de fer du Midi, Chemins de fer de l'Ouest and Chemins de fer de l'Est with railway it had partly funded in the Balkans.
Until the 1890s, the VSB supported a projected railway under the Splügen Pass, which, however, could not be built because of a lack of funds. Eventually the VSB succeeded in establishing the right to use an important connection to Zürich over the Wallisellen–Zürich line of the Swiss Northeastern Railway (NOB).
Since the idea of building an eastern Alpine railway from Chur towards Italy ended with the start of construction of the Gotthard Railway, the Rhine Valley Railway from Rorschach to Chur remained a regional line. Over time, Rorschach was displaced as the leading port town on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance by Romanshorn. The NOB expanded its harbour in Romanshorn and put its own steamboats into operation. In 1869, the NOB opened the Lake Line from Rorschach to Romanshorn, where the line of the NOB ran next to the VSB's line between Rorschach Hafen (harbour) and Rorschach. The Lake Line of the NOB and the Bischofszellerbahn's Gossau–Sulgen line, which was commissioned in 1876, relieved the VSB of some traffic. When the NOB opened the shorter Lake Zürich left bank railway (Zürich–Thalwil–Ziegelbrücke) in 1875, the former Wallisellen–Rapperswil line lost importance. The VSB could only continue operations with extreme cost cutting. Under the leadership of Adolf Klose, mechanical engineering achievements and locomotive designs were created at the Rorschach workshop that received attention and recognition.
As part of merger negotiations, the VSB was able to acquire the concession for the realisation of the Bözberg railway line on 16 July 1857. The VSB abandoned this concession in 1864 due to lack of financial resources.
The VSB managed the operation of some other companies, such as the Toggenburgerbahn (TB, opened in 1870), the Wald-Rüti-Bahn (WR, opened in 1876 and now part of the Tösstal Railway) and temporarily the Zürichsee–Gotthardbahn (ZGB). The VSB was also financially involved in the Toggenburgerbahn and the Wald–Rüti-Bahn.
Until the 1870s, the VSB suffered from lack of international connections. The Vorarlberg Railway (Vorarlbergbahn; VB) opened the Lindau–St. Margrethen link on 1 August 1872 and the Feldkirch–Buchs section on 20 October 1872, leading to an increase in traffic. The Arlberg Railway, which was opened on 6 September 1884, had a significant influence on the development of traffic. The VSB gave access to two metre-gauge lines of the Rhaetian Railway (Rhätische Bahn), the Landquart–Davos lines, opened in 1889, and the Chur–Thusis line, opened in 1896.
The VSB suffered, like many other companies, during the economic crisis of the late 1870s. Its stock prices dropped massively. In contrast to the NOB or the Swiss Central Railway, the VSB were able to distribute modest dividends from 1871 onwards. Because the VSB was not able to expand its network after 1859, it had low debt and its financial situation was very solid.
In the Vonwil train crash, a train coming from Winterthur derailed at Vonwil in St. Gallen on 31 December 1879. The train's two locomotives came to lie on the left and right of the railway track with the carriages pushed into each other. The accident claimed two fatalities and several injuries, some serious. [1]
| No. | Line | Opening | Remarks | Property length | Operating length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Winterthur–St. Gallen | 28 September 1855 – 25 March 1856 | Built by the Sankt Gallisch-Appenzellische Eisenbahn (SGAE) | 71.889 km | 72.765 km |
| St. Gallen–Rorschach | 25 October 1856 | ||||
| 2. | Rorschach Hafen–Rorschach | 92.349 km | 91.730 km | ||
| Rorschach–St. Margrethen–Sargans–Chur | 25 August 1857 – 1 July 1858 | SOB project | |||
| 3. | Sargans–Weesen–Ziegelbrücke | 15 February 1859 – 1 July 1859 | 93.048 km | 102.194 km | |
| Ziegelbrücke–Rapperswil | 15 February 1859 | ||||
| Rapperswil–Uster–Wallisellen (–Zürich) | 1 August 1856 – 15 Feb 1859 | Built by the Gl-TB and the VSB | |||
| 4. | Weesen–Näfels–Glarus | 15 February 1859 | SOB project Weesen–Näfels: operation discontinued in 1918 and closed in 1931 | 11.638 km | 11.488 km |
| 5. | Wil–Ebnat-Kappel railway | 24 June 1870 | Built by the TB | 24.852 km | |
| 6. | Wald-Rüti-Bahn (WR): Wald–Rüti | 29 September 1876 | 6.570 km | ||
| 7. | Zürichsee–Gotthardbahn (ZGB): Rapperswil–Pfäffikon SZ | 27 August 1878 (until 31 December 1889) | Merged with the WE in 1890 | 4.020 km | |
| Total | 268.924 km | 313.619 km |
The rising price of wood forced the VSB to search for alternatives for firing their steam locomotives and it secured a large peat deposit in Möggingen near Radolfzell in 1857. Nevertheless, as the railway developed as a means of mass transport, the company gained access to foreign coal deposits. The conversion to coal firing was largely completed at the VSB in 1861.
The VSB implemented telegraphic signalling with electrical signal discs invented by Matthäus Hipp in 1865. Carriages and locomotives were converted to the buffer system in 1872.
The Federal Shooting Festival (Eidgenössisches Schützenfest) took place in St. Gallen from 18 to 27 July 1874. The VSB transported 140,000 people to St. Gallen over ten days. This required the assistance of staff and rolling stock from the NOB and the VB.
The first through train from Rorschach via St. Gallen was introduced to serve the Swiss National Exhibition (Schweizerische Landesausstellung) in Zürich in 1883. Previously passengers had to change in Winterthur from VSB to NOB trains.
The company changed from Bernese time to Central European Time on 1 June 1894. Direct coaches ran between St. Gallen and Geneva from 1 June 1896.
In 1901, shortly before the nationalisation. the VSB took over the Toggenburgerbahn (TB) at no cost from the Canton of St. Gallen, which indirectly subsidised the construction of the Ricken Tunnel. The VSB was nationalised on 1 July 1902 and subsequently became part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). The VSB had already been operated on behalf of the federal government since 1 January 1901.
Part of the old corporate structures remained for a long time. The former SBB District Directorate IV was created from the headquarters of the VSB in St. Gallen. The former SBB main workshop in Chur had its roots in the SOB. Over time, the now closed SBB Rorschach locomotive depot emerged from the main workshop of the VSB. The railway built in Uster what is now the oldest roundhouse with a turntable in Switzerland. [2] The carriage house has been restored and now serves as a depot and locomotive workshop of the Dampfbahn-Verein Zürcher Oberland, the heritage railway that operates the Bauma–Hinwil line.
The electrification of the line required the replacement of the Sitter, Glatt, Uze and Thur bridges between St. Gallen and Wil and the wooden Rhine bridge at Ragaz. However, the stone bridge over the Goldach has been preserved and has been used by two tracks since 1993.
The chainage (kilometre markings) has not been changed on the lines of the former VSB. The kilometre measurements still start in Sargans, where kilometre 0 is located.
The Bodensee–Toggenburg railway is a mainly single-track standard-gauge line connecting Romanshorn on Lake Constance and the Toggenburg region in Eastern Switzerland. It was built by the Bodensee-Toggenburg-Bahn (BT), a former railway company, which existed from 1910 until its merger with the "old" Südostbahn (SOB) to form the "new" Südostbahn (SOB) on 1 January 2001. Today, the line together with the Wattwil–Ebnat-Kappel section forms the eastern network of the Südostbahn.
THURBO is a railway company in eastern Switzerland, jointly owned by Swiss Federal Railways (90%) and the canton of Thurgau.
The Wallisellen–Uster–Rapperswil railway line is a railway line in the Swiss canton of Zurich. It is also known as the Glatthalbahn, Glatttalbahn or Glattalbahn (Gl-TB), although the latter name is now more commonly used to refer to the Stadtbahn Glattal, a nearby light rail system.
The Swiss Northeastern Railway was an early railway company in Switzerland. It also operated shipping on Lake Constance (Bodensee) and Lake Zürich. Until the merger of the Western Swiss Railways into the Jura–Simplon Railway (JS) in 1890/91, it was the largest Swiss railway company.
The Südostbahn – commonly abbreviated to SOB – is a railway company and 1,435 mmstandard gauge network in Switzerland.
The construction and operation of Swiss railways during the 19th century was carried out by private railways. The first internal line was a 16 km line opened from Zürich to Baden in 1847. By 1860 railways connected western and northeastern Switzerland. The first Alpine railway to be opened was under the Gotthard Pass in 1882. A second alpine line was opened under the Simplon Pass in 1906.
Pfäffikon SZ railway station is a junction station serving Pfäffikon, the principal town of the municipality of Freienbach, in the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The station is situated at the northern edge of the town, between the town centre and Lake Zurich.
Ziegelbrücke railway station is a junction station in the village of Ziegelbrücke in Switzerland. Whilst the village is shared between the municipality of Glarus Nord, in the canton of Glarus, and the municipality of Schänis, in the canton of St. Gallen, the station is located in Schänis.
Rüti ZH is a railway station in the municipality of Rüti in the Swiss canton of Zurich. The station is located on the Wallisellen to Rapperswil line just south-west of its junction with the Tösstalbahn from Winterthur via Wald. It is served by passenger trains of the Zurich S-Bahn.
St. Gallen railway station serves the town St. Gallen, the capital of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is located at the junction of the standard gauge St. Gallen–Winterthur, Rorschach–St. Gallen, and Romanshorn–Toggenburg lines of Swiss Federal Railways and the 1,000 mm gauge Appenzell–St. Gallen–Trogen line of Appenzell Railways.
The Uznach–Wattwil railway, also called the Rickenbahn is a single-track standard-gauge line in Switzerland. It was opened on 1 October 1910 by the Swiss Federal Railways. It is 14.37 kilometres long, including 8,603 kilometres in the Ricken Tunnel.
The Zürich–Winterthur railway is a Swiss railway line. It was opened in 1855 and runs from Zürich Hauptbahnhof via several routes to Winterthur and is a bottleneck in Swiss rail transport. Practically all lines of the core network of the Zürich S-Bahn use parts of this line.
The St. Gallen–Winterthur railway line is a standard gauge railway line in the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau and Zürich and belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). The 57.1 kilometre-long line was opened between 1855 and 1856 in four stages by the St. Gallen-Appenzell Railway.
The Chur–Rorschach railway line, also called the Rhine Valley line, is a standard gauge railway line in Switzerland. It belongs to the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and is located in the cantons of St. Gallen and the Grisons.
The Ziegelbrücke–Sargans railway is a railway operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
The Winterthur–Romanshorn railway, also known in German as the Thurtallinie, is a Swiss railway line and was built as part of the railway between Zürich and Lake Constance (Bodensee). It connects Winterthur with Romanshorn, where it formerly connected to train ferries over Lake Constance. It is the fourth oldest internal railway in Switzerland. Its construction was to be funded by the Zürich-Lake Constance Railway (Zürich-Bodenseebahn), but during the construction the company was merged with the Swiss Northern Railway to form the Swiss Northeastern Railway. The Winterthur–Romanshorn railway was opened on 16 May 1855 and the line from Winterthur to Oerlikon was opened on 27 December 1855. Zürich was reached on 26 June 1856 and the two existing NOB lines were connected.
The Rapperswil–Ziegelbrücke railway line is a single-track standard-gauge railway line in Switzerland. It was built as part of the route from Rüti to Glarus, which was opened by the United Swiss Railways on 15 February 1859.
The Rapperswil–Pfäffikon railway is a short single-track standard-gauge line connecting Pfäffikon in the Swiss canton of Schwyz and Rapperswil in St. Gallen over Lake Zürich.
The original Schweizerische Südostbahn was a railway company in Central Switzerland with its headquarters in Wädenswil. It was created in 1890 by the merger of the Wädenswil-Einsiedeln-Bahn and the Zürichsee–Gotthardbahn and operated the standard gauge adhesion railways on the Rapperswil–Arth-Goldau and the Wädenswil–Einsiedeln routes. It merged in 2001 with the Bodensee–Toggenburg railway (Bodensee-Toggenburg-Bahn) to form the "new" Südostbahn.
The Wil–Ebnat-Kappel railway is a single-track standard-gauge line that runs through the Toggenburg region of Switzerland. It was built by the Toggenburgerbahn. Its 25 kilometre-long, standard gauge line from Wil via Wattwil to Ebnat-Kappel was opened on 24 June 1870. The TB was nationalised as of 1 July 1902 and became part of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).
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